554- 
©4 




t>^^4 jH 




Class. 
Book. 



F-53 4- 



Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
in 2010 witii funding from 
Tine Library of Congress 



littp://www.arcliive.org/details/speeclioflionluciuOOclian 



ffi- 



0^ 



■', <i? 



SFEECH 



[IS H. CHANDLER, 



•sr X :ei o- X isr X j^ 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, 



[N DEFKN'CE OF HIS CLAIM TO A SEAT !N THAT BODY FOR THE THIRTY- 
EIGHTH CONGRESS. 



l^From the Congressional Globe of May 2\st, 1864.] 

Mr. CHANDLER, (claimant.) Mr. Speaker, the last day of the last ses- 
sion of Congress a bill was passed which provided that in making up the 
roll, preparatory to the organization of the next, and each ensuing Congress, 
the Clerk of the House should only place thereon the names of such persons 
as had credentials showing that they had been regularly elected in accord- 
ance with the laws of their respective States, or the laws of the United 
States. At the meeting of this House, the first day of this session, when the 
list of names prepared under this law was read, it was found that the Clerk had 
discharged his duty in a manner which, although doubtless quite satisfac- 
tory to himself, was very unsatisfactory to a large majority of the members. 
Whole States were left unrepresented. Oregon, Kansas, Maryland, West 
Virginia, and Virginia appeared not upon the roll. It was quite a puzzle 
then — I am not aware that it is a less one now — to know the rules by which 
the action of the Clerk was governed. It could not have been a desire to 
punish States that had Confederate legislatures, for Louisiana, Kentucky, 
and Missouri, all of which were on the roll, had such bodies. As to the last 
two, they, to be sure, were as peripatetic as a tin-peddler's cart or a Missis- 
sippi guerilla party ; still they claimed to be legislatures. Nor was it be- 
cause some of them were represented in the Confederate Congress. Louis- 
iana, Kentucky, and Missouri were fully represented at Richmond, There 
was no question of State seal, for " my Maryland" had her great State seal 
affixed to the credentials of her members, while Louisiana, with a naivete 
that was quite refreshing, gave as a reason for the absence of hers that it 



wasforcibly kept in the possession of the public enemies of the State. The num- 
ber of votes received by the respective members of the omitted States could 
not have been in question. To this day it is not known how many votes the 
Louisiana members received, but no one pretends that it was as many as 
were cast for me, and I was the lowest on the list in this respect. Here, 
however, in justice to the Clerk, let me say that, surprised as I was, and am, 
at the conclusions to which he arrived, I have no doubt he was honest in 
them, and meant to carry out the law in good faith and with honest purpose. 

Well, sir, the roll, such as it was, was read, and after a few questions had 
been asked and answered, a motion was submitted and carried that the 
names of the members from Maryland should be placed on it. Like motions, 
with like results, were submitted as to Oregon, Kansas, and West Virginia. 

The following resolution was then offered : 

^'•Resolved, That the names of Lucius H. Chandler, Joseph Scgar, and Benjamin M. 
Kitchen be placed on the roll as Representatives from the 8tate of Virginia." 

Themover of that resolution I see not here. On him mortal eye will 
never look again. He is a shrouded sleeper in the cold and silent chambers 
of the dead. We had been schoolmates when I was but a small boy, and ere 
he had reached the first flush of manhood. Our preceptor, to use the New 
England term, was his brother — that brother whose life-blood was poured out 
at Alton. Owen Lovejoy was one of the few of my schoolmates of whom I 
always retained a vivid impression. He was studious, quick in the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge, as self-willed as a grandam's pet, and with brains enough 
to make that will effective. It was no matter of surprise to me when I saw 
his election to Congress. The man was but the normal growth of the boy — 
the flower but the expansion of the bud — the autumnal fruit but the full 
development of the blossom of the spring-time. We differed on many polit- 
ical questions. I do not remember to have seen him but twice since we 
parted at the academy. It is pleasant to me to remember now, knowing as 
I do how strong were his party ties, how ingrained and burned in bone-deep 
were his political opinions, and particularly his anti-slavery sentiments — for 
he ever heard " his brother's blood crying to him from the ground" — that 
in submitting that resolution his eye brightened, and he seemed to feel a 
pleasure in aiding by voice and vote one whom he had known in the olden 
time, the long, long ago. 

The resolution was tabled by 27 majority, Not having been admitted 
to our seats, we were sent before the Committee of Elections. That com- 
mittee has made an adverse report as to us all. One of the three, 
Mr. Kitchen, has already received the consent of this House that he 
should retire to private life, and the question now submitted to your con- 
sideration is as to granting a like permission to the other two. 



^^ a o 



When I bear in mind that the Clerk decided ao;ainst us, that this House 
by a decided raijority ignored us, and that we have now to combat the 
report of a committee which, if for no other reason, by the character and 
ability of its members is entitled to large consideration, I cannot say " I 
bate not jot of heart or hope," but I do say, I do not despair, I believe 
our claim to be legal and just, and that, if presented in anything like its 
full strength, it will not only deserve but will command success. 

As the report in my case is brief, with the leave of the House I will 
read it : 

" The Committee of Elections, to whom were referred tbe credentials of Lucitis H 
Chamiler, claiming a seat in this House as a Representative in the Thirty-Eighth Con- 
gress from the second district of Virginia, submit the following report: 

That the second district of Virginia is composed of eleven counties, viz : Bruns- 
wick, Dinwidde, Greenville, Isle of Wight, Naosemond, Norfolk, Pincess Anne, Prince 
George, Southampton, Surr^', and ^-ussex. 

Mr. Chandler claims to have been elected on the fourth Thursday in May, 1863, the 
day fised by law in the State of Virginia for the election of Representatives to the 
present Congress. Polls were opened 0:1 that day in nine places in Norfolk county, 
Portsmouth, and Norfolk, and the whole number of votes cast was 779, of which Mr. 
•Chandler received 778. The committee have not been able to ascertain how many of 
these votes were cast at each of the several voting places, but have been informed 
that almost the entire vote was cast at the city of Norfolk. The conclusion to which 
the committee have arrived does not render it necessary to make certain this fact. 
No votes were cast or polls opened in any other county in the district, for the reason 
that all the other counties composing this district, except that of Norfolk, were either 
tinder the entire control and occupation of the rebels, or so nearly so, that no man 
could go to the polls in safety if any had been opened for the reception of votes. 
The following table, taken from the census of 1860, will show the population of the 
whole district at that time; 



Brunswick 

Dinwiddle....,, 
Greenville ... 
Isle of Wisrht. 



14.809 

30,198 

6,374 

9,977 

Nansemond i 13,693 



P ~ 



Norfolk* 

Princess Anne. 
Prince George. 
Southampton.. 

Surry 

Sussex 



Total 



36,227 
7,714 
8,411 

12,915 
6,133 

10,175 

156,626 



4,992 
13,678 
1.974 
5,037 
5,732 
24,420 
4,333 
2,899 
5,713 
2,334 
3,118 

74,230 



>3 



2,459 
6,837 
972 
2,510 
2.838 
12,091 
2,226 
1,463 
2,790 
1,151 
1,542 

36,879 



9,817 

16,520 

4,400 

4,940 

17,961 

11,807 

3,381 

5,512 

7,202 

3,799 

7,057 

82,396 



In census returns, Norfolk county includes Norfolk oity and Portsmouth. 



From this table can be seen, at a glance, the proportion which the popnlatiofl of 
Norfolk county, when the election was held, bears to that of the whole district. The 
committee are of opinion that his case is governed hy the principles adopted by them 
in their report in the case of B. M. Kitchen, from the seventh district in this State, 
Nfo. 14, already sanctioned by a vote of the House, and also in their report No. 9, in 
the case of Joseph Segar, from the first district in this State, and that in no proper 
sense can the vote in one county be treated as the choice of the other ten counties, 
prevented by the strong arm of the rebellion from expressing any wish at the ballot- 
box. 

The committee do not deem it necessary to repeat here the reasons there given for 
a conclusion founded on a state of facts so similar that they could discover no nevr 
principle involved. They therefore refer to the above-named reports for a more full 
exposition of the views of the committee upon claims of this character, and reccom- 
mend the adoption of the follovying resolution : 

Resolved, That Lucius H. Cbandler is not entitled to a seat in this House as a Rep- 
resentative in the Thirty-Eighth Congress from the second congressional district of 
Virginia." 

The committee, by the way, are mistaken in supposing that almost the 
entire vote was cast in the city of Norfolk. A majority of the totes were 
polled in Portsmouth, 

It will be perceived by the report that no question is made as to the mode 
of election, credentiala, or any matter of form. But as at the organization 
of the House some members thought the credentials were not properly au^ 
thenticated, it may be well to say here that they are in every respect in con- 
formity with the la\T of Virginia. The Constitution of the United States 
gives the legislatures of the respective States full power as to "times, places, 
and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives,^* reserv- 
ing to Congress the right, at any time, by law, to " make or alter such reg- 
udations, except as to the places of choosing Senators." Congress not hav- 
ing exercised its " right," the full power, in this wise, is with the State. 

The only point made by the committee is as to the vote cast, taken in 
connection with the small portion of the district in which polls were opened. 
The repoFt says : "The coiiimittee are of opinion that his case is governed 
by the principles adopted by them in their report in the case of B. M, 
Kitchen, from the seventh district in this State," &c. 

I shall not consume time by reading the report in the case of Kitchen, 
The principle adopted in that case is this: '■'^ that where the vote actually 
polled in any district is such a minorrily of the whole vote that it cannot 
be determined that the person selected by that minority was the choice cf 
the whole district, and the absent majority were not voluntarily staying 
away from the polls, but were kept away by force, then no such selection, 
thus made, could be treated as an election." At the first glance this prin- 
ciple appears sound, without blemish or flaw. It so seemed to me at the 
earliest reading I gave it, I am free to say I then deemed it conclusive 



against my claim to a seat. Upon a second reading I changed my opinion^ 
and thought then, as I think now, that the proposition is but plausible and 
specious. It embraces two assumptions. 

1. That the absent majority was kept away by force. 

2. That that absent majority was composed altogether of Union men. 
In discussing them, I shall reverse their order. 

As to the assumption that the absent majority was composed altogether 
of Union men. The numerical strength of that majority is arrived at in this 
way. The ratio of loyal voters in the counties that did not vote, it is taken 
for granted, was the same as in those that did. It is a simple question in 
the "Rule of Three." If a population of so many thousands gave so many 
Votes, how many would a population of another number of thousands give ? 
With this basis of calculation, the Union vote in that portion of my district 
in which polls were not opened would have been 1,588, taking the whites 
only. In most cases the adoption of such a rule would probably be a pro- 
per one. Both my colleague and myself admit that with the light the 
committee had before them it was as to us every way fair. I think my dis- 
trict is an exception to this general rule, and that I can convince the com- 
mittee that it is. A similar state of things exists as to the district of my 
colleague. 

Three years have rolled round since the ordinance of secession was voted 
Upon in Virginia ; but three years as marked by the oscillations of a pen- 
dulum, tlie sands of an hour-glass, or the return of seed-time and harvest ^ 
but if measured by events, it has been an eternity, with an Iliad of woes. 
Since 1828, disunion doctrines, to a greater or less extent, had been pro- 
mulged in Virginia by the bar-room and cross-road politicians, and now 
and then by a member of Congress, but they did not become rampant until 
the presidential campaign of 1860. In the free States the supporters of 
Breckinridge were unquestionably as loyal as the members of any other 
party. It was not so in the southern States-^certainly not so in Virginia. 
In that ever memorable campaign the line between loyalty and treason wasi 
tolerably well defined. Every secessionist was for Breckinridge ; and the 
converse of the proposition, that every Breckinridge man was a secession- 
ist, was in the main true. There is an old Greek proverb, that " from a 
crow's egg you can expect nothing but a crow." A Union man expected 
from a Breckinridge man nothing but a disunionist, and in nine cases out 
of ten was not deceived or disappointed. All Democrats, however, did 
not support that ticket. A large number refused to be switched off the 
Union track. In my district these patriotic men were headed by a gen- 
tleman well known to many on this floor and to the country at large — one 
whose private character is as spotless as 

" the fanned snow, 
That's bolted by the northern blasts twice o'er," 



6 

and whose public ads, as part of the imperishable history of his country^ 
will ever do him honor. I refer to the Hon. John S. Millson. 

I was on the Bell and Everett electoral ticket, and received in the coun* 
ties and cities composing my congressional district a plnralit}' of 578 votes. 
The Union vote, including of course that thrown for Douglas, was 6,712. 
About 2,900 of that Union vote, or nearly one half, was cast in Norfolk 
county, Norfolk city, and Portsmouth. At the latter place was one of the 
largest navy-yards in the country. Before the breaking out of the war, it 
had for years furnished a support to thousands. The most of the counties 
in the district are inland, and had but a small infusion of population from 
the free States. Norfolk and Portsmouth, on the other hand, were sea- 
ports, with a large number of that class. At the commencement of the 
war score? and scores of Union men left these cities, but returned after our 
forces took possession. The congressional election was held the fourth 
Thursday in May, 1863. These cities and Norfolk county had for a year 
been held by our troops. The other counties had either never been oc- 
cupied by us, or had been one day in our possession, and the next in that 
•of the confederates. Surely the victorious presence of the old banner with 
its stars and stripes, "symbols of light and law," for a twelve month, may 
be supposed to have had some influence. 

In eastern Virginia the vote in favor of secession, in favor of breaking up 
the foundations of that Government which had been cemented by the toils, 
the tears, and the blood of our fathers, was very large. It is true that that 
unanimity did not indicate the real state of public opinion. Thousands of 
Union men did not vote at all; other thousands of Union men voted for the 
ordinance. The questions may be asked, " what became of the Union men 
who did not vote?" " How happened it that Union men could ignore their 
sentiments and vote for secession ?" It is difficult to give to those residing 
in free States satisfactory answers to thesi questions. It does, however, 
seem to me that there is nothing so very strange in the state of things that 
transpired. Go into any community, north or south, east or west, and what 
is the proportion of men who have a genuine article of moral or physical 
backbone ? In ordinary times, the " piping times of peace," when sailing 
on the smooth surface of a summer sea, with the sweet South making soft 
dalliance with the sails, we get along well enough. The gutta-percha, car- 
tilaginous substance that composes the spinal column of so many of us answers 
a very good purpose. Bat when the " rains descend, and the floods come, 
and the winds blow," there is a collapse. 

One of the great evils of modern civilization is its destruction of individ- 
uality of character. Men not only move in masses but they think in masses, 
and are easily led away by novelty and excitement. In revolutions the lead- 



t'- V . 



ers are bold and reckless. Many a conservative joins them through fear 
and then, to avoid the suspicion of lukewarmness, goes further, and becomes 
more ardent than the original agitators. All French historians tell us that 
in the first French Revolution, when the lamp-posts bore such fearful fruit 
in Paris, and the gutters literally bubbled with blood, the mob was always 
in the minority, could there have been a fair expression of opinion. 

New converts makeup in zeal what they lack in experience. It is one of 
the settled principles of human nature. This may be illustrated in a thou- 
sand ways. An Orful Gardner will be more zealous in prayers and exhor- 
tations than an old Christian. The members of the peace societies of twenty- 
five years' since are much fuller of fight than the veterans of a dozen battle- 
fields. A Whig, whether he ratted from honest convictions or because his 
nostrils quivered and expanded at the savory fumes from the flesh pots, as a 
Democrat generally " out-lleroded Herod." If called upon to select an ab- 
oli-tionist of the first water, you would take neither Garrison nor Phillips^ 
but would hunt up some one who was a pro-slavery Democrat at the last 
presidential election. 

Add to all this, Mr, Speaker, the long time my district was in the hands 
of the Conl'ederates, the money every wealthy man was compelled to invest 
in the Coniederate cause, the fathers, brothers, sons, that were seduced or 
forced into the Confederate army, the sympathies that naturally clustered 
about them, and the difficulty of discriminating between them and the cause 
for which they were in arms, and we can understand, I think, why some por- 
tion of Unionism was rooted out. 

As I have already said, the vote in favor of the ordinance of secession was 
very large, nearly unanimous. The city of Portsmouth, however — " blessings 
be on her and eternal praise" — cast more votes against it than the balance of 
the district. 

And now, Mr. Speaker, I ask the members of this House, in view of facts 
to which I have referred, if thej believe loyalty was as generally diffused 
throughout the district as it was in Norfolk county, Norfolk, and Portsmouth 
and if the ratio, as established by the committee, is a fair one in my case ? 
But if the assumption of a " Union vote of 1,588" be correct, does it follow 
that it would have been unanimous against me ? Of the 779 votes actually 
cast I received 778. Is it unreasonable to suppose that as a Union man, tol- 
erably well known in the district, I should have received some of the 1,588, 
particularly as I was the only candidate? Is such an inference in my favor 
a forced one? Would it require Mr. Shandy's coach horses with Obadiah 
in charge of the reins to draw it? If a " ratio" as to the the person for 
whom the votes would have been thrown were to prevail as well as the ratio 
of the committee as to the number that would have been thrown, my propor- 
tion of the 1,588 would have been i,586. 



In this connection, Mr, Speaker, I wish to submit a proposition to the 
chairman. He was born in Massachusetts. I am of that ilk. We are 
" Arcades ambo'^ and although neither of us after speaking on this floor, 
for a few minutes even, could be considered as in orood condition for sinsing, 
we, as Yankees, may be regarded as always ready for a trade The only vote 
I did not receive at the congressional election in my district was cast for 
John Minor Botts. Now, sir, if the chairman will withdraw ray case, refer 
it back to the committee, regard Mr. Botts as a contestant, and upon my with- 
drawing my claim, declare him entitled to the seat, I will take my hat and 
withdraw from this Hall quicker than Lot did from Sodom, although angels 
hastened him. I will do more. liOfc's wife looked back. Not wishing to 
draw any invidious comparison between this House and one of the cities of 
the plain, I will agree never to look toward it again. 

I now pass, Mr. Speaker, to the first assumption of the committee, " that 
the absent majority was kept away by force." For the purpose of the argu- 
ment I am willing to admit that it was thus kept away, and that but for such 
/orce it would have been as large as claimed. But I deny the correctness of 
the proposition, " that if an absent majority was kept away by force, then 
no such selection thus made, could be treated as an election." With all 
respect for the committee, and for its chairman, who attends principally to 
the championship of their reports — and right ably doeshe discharge this duty, 
I think such a proposition unfounded in law, unsustained by reason, fatally 
dangerous in practice. Let me be understood. I am not combating this 
principle " toto cocio," but as it applies to the State of Virginia in the congres- 
sional election. Under certain circumstances the proposition is undoubtedly 
sound. If in time of peace the interference of the military, or if in time of war 
such interference by soldiers not hostile, but of our own troops, kept a ma- 
jority from the polls, then I grant you the election would and should be void. 
What have been the allegations, in this wise, at this session as to Maryland 
and Missouri ? Why, that LTnion troops, at the polls, by actual violence or 
intimidation prevented loyal American citizens from exercising freely, and 
without dictation, the great privilege of the elective franchise. In the Mis- 
souri case of Loan and Bruce, just decided by this House, it was not alleged 
that the military had endeavored to prevent an election. The charge was 
that they had endeavored to give a certain direction to the election. All 
the preliminary formalities of an election had been complied with. The 
polls were regularly opened, and every person duly qualified would have been 
permitted to vote, provided he had voted on the same side with the bayo- 
nets. It was not a denial of the right to vote, but a denial of any exercise 
of a preference as to the candidate to be voted for. 

Interferences such as I have referred to might happen through the influ- 
ence of party, or of the Government, but would be much more likely to 





occur from collusion between the military and one or more of the candidates. 
In whiitever way these interferences took place, whether by the influences 
of which I have spoken, or by collusion, they should be frowned down, and 
trampled into the mire after they are down. 

I hold the rule to be entirely different, if "the absent majority was kept 
away" by the presence of a foreign foe. or by domestic traitors banded to- 
gether, not to prevent or control an election, but to subvert a government. 
Am I mistaken as to this ? Is the distinction I make a fanciful one? Let 
us state a case or two by way of illustration. The chairman of the Com- 
mittee of Elections has no doubt heard and read of a serious outbreak that 
was known as " Shay's rebellion." It occurred in Massachusetts. The old 
*' Bay State" has known what it was to nourish traitors. I do not know 
that the inlected section embraced any part of the gentleman's district. If 
it did, it could have exerted but one kind of influence upon him — the 
-Strengthening his devotion to his country and her institutions. If, however, 
upon the day of election, at any time when the chairman was a candidate, 
three-fourths or seven-eighths of his district had been overrun, not by a 
mob merely?, but by armed traitors such as were the man headed by Shay, 
and polls had been opened in only the remaining fourth, or one-eighth, and 
at those the gentleman had received a majority, or all of the votes actually 
thrown, save one, would he havi' claimed his seat? 

In 1814, during the war with Great Britain, her troops took possession of 
Castine and quite a portion of Hancock, and I think of Penobscot counties, 
in the then " district of Maine." They were in such forcible possession for 
some time. Did such armed occupancy break up congressional districts, 
make necessary new apportionments, deprive other portions of the districts, 
not pressed by the tread of a hostile foreign soldiery, of their rights to rep- 
resentation ? 

In that fearful fight at Gettysburg, where the trained columns of Lee went 
down before the brave boys of the Army of the Potomac as the bearded 
grain goes down before the strong arm of the cradler, suppose he had been 
successful. A considerable portion of the State of Pennsylvania, for a shorter 
or a longer period, would have been overrun by graybacks. If a county or 
two in some of the congressional districts had e»scaped the dire visitation and 
held elections, would you have refused and rejected those whom they select- 
ed ? Maryland, at one time, was subjected to the same risk. Kentucky 
and Missouri, to a greater or less extent, are in such a condition at this very 
hour. By the adoption of the rule of the committee you might deprive 
yourselves of a quorum. 

Again, sir, it is not common justice to punish those who have not sinned, 
if a large portion of my constituents in Brunswick, and the other counties, 
the •' Union majority " of the committee, did not and could not vote, it is 



10 

their niistortune, not the fault of those who did vote. The former are not 
deprived of their rights because the latter obtain those to which they are 
entitled. 

It will be also observed that theie is a broad line of demarcation between 
the Missouri case, to which I have already referred, and the cases of my 
colleague and myself. If the report of the committee had been adopted^ 
and neither Mr. Loan nor Mr. Bruce been admitted, a new election would 
have been ordered at once. The people of that district, in Missouri, would 
have been unrepresented so long only as would have been necessary to give 
the legal notice of such election. 

In the case of Mr. Segar and myself the same state of things exists now, 
in our districts, as when we claim to have been elected. Ignore our claims 
and our constituents must have no voice in this popular branch of the Gov- 
ernment. No valid election can be had in either of our districts until our 
victorious arms shall have driven the traitors out. 

If I have not maintained the position I took against the soundness of the 
proposition of the committee as to the " majority," and their " being kt;pt 
away from the polls by armed force," I think it has been owing to no inher- 
ent weakness in the position itself, but solely to the lack of ability I have 
shown in defending or maintaining it. One wurd more, by the way, befure 
I close this branch of the argument. The views of the committee would 
make it absolutely necessary to have an actual ascertained majority of the 
votes 7iot cast as well as of those cast. The lack of one vote would be as 
fatal as the lack of a thousand. 

Mr. DAWES. The gentleman states that a minority of the voters of a 
district have the authority to elect a Representative. Now, I ask how small 
a minority may elect ? 

Mr. CHAIN DLEli. The most forcible question that can be put. The 
gentleman is too good a logician not to know that the redudio ad absurdum 
is a most potent weapon in argument. I admit my principle would, perhaps, 
if carried to the extreme, give one person the right to elect. But on the 
other hand, that principle of construction which I laid down before the gen- 
man interrupted me — and here I will say the gentleman's interruption does 
not trouble me at all, because my life has been full of interruptions, not the 
least of which is the one thrown in my way by the gentleman himself — 
which was that an actual minority of one would have defeated me, would 
in some degree, at least, place the gentleman in something of the same di- 
lemma in which he seeks to fix me. Does the gentleman say that? If he 
does, then I say I think that one vote can elect. As a mere matter of law 
one vote can elect as well as a thousand. Electors are under no legal obli- 
gation to vote. They may if they see proper permit an election to go by de- 
fault, and permit one man to return a Kepreseututive to Congress. 



11 

Let me put the case in another way, Eveiy one who knows anything 
about West Virginia — -and my friend on my right, one of the Representatives 
of West Virginia, [Mr. Blair.] understands a good deal about the by-ways 
and paths of that country — knows that at least in its earlier history, and the 
same rule holds good to a very considerable extent now, the roads were 
very bad. There were but few bridges, the branches were liable to rise, 
and the bridsres to be carried away. The streams were generally crossed by 
fords, and these streams were so liable to be swollen by rains, that a provision 
■was early introduced into the statute-book providing that in case of heavy 
rains the sheriffs should have the right in the respective counties to adjourn 
the polls from time to time not exceeding three days. That same rule, I 
believe, still holds good to this day. 

Now, suppose that instead of rebels in arms, in the counties of my district 
that did not vote, the windows of heaven had been opened, and the rain had 
come down, equaling the first three days of the fearful rain which served the 
old world so badly, giving us a specimen — as the man said — of the water- 
cii*e, but the other way. If the voters had been thus prevented going to 
the polls, and I had received but the 778 votes which I did receive, would 
the gentlem.m from Massachusetts say in that case I was not entitled to my 
seat? I ask the gentleman that question, and I pause for an answer, 

Mr. DAWES. Mr. Speaker, I suppose that when the statutes of Virginia 
contemplate such an exigency as that, and provide for it, we might, govern- 
ing ourselves by the statute, find an answer; that in the course of three days 
it was to be hoped the clouds would expel themselves and the rainbow spread 
over the heavens. 

Mr. CHxlNDLER. Mr. Speaker, there is more smartness than fairness 
about that answer; but let us take the case where there is no such provision 
of the statute. What would the gentleman say to that ? 

Mr. DAWES. I should say it was a casuH ojiii'ssus. 

Mr. CHANDLER, The gentleman knows very well that there is not a 
member of the Committee of Elections who would have dared to stultify 
himself, in the presence of the House, by introducing such a report as the 
t'ommittee has introduced in my case, where voters were kept away by 
heavy rain. (Mr. Dawes nodded assent.) He admits the proposition. 
Then, if the fact that voters are kept away from the polls by the act of God 
does not vitiate the election, let me ask him another question. I do not 
know what the gentleman's profession is, but I will bet my life he is a law- 
yer. 

Mr, DAWES. Not eraough to hurt me. [Laughter.] 

Mr. CHANDLER. But enough to hurt me seriously. [Laughter.] 

Mr. DAWES. The gentleman does not seem to recognize the difference 
■between the act of God and the act of the devil. 



T2 

Mr. CHANDLER. The act of the devil is considered in law the act of 
the king's enemies — is it not? Did the gentleman in all his lejfal rexidiiig, 
either in a marine insurance policy, or in an elementary text-book, or in the 
decisions of our different courts, ever see the act of God mentioned that it 
was not, in ninety-nine times out of one hundred, coupled with the term 
" the king's enemies ?" And it comes to precisely this, that if the voters 
are prevented by the act of God from being at the polls, then a small minni-- 
ity may elect. You may call heavy rain the act of the devil, and be some- 
what sustained by Scripture, which speaks of the prince of the power of the 
air. I assert that if the majority is prevented from com'ng to the polls by 
the act of God, or by the act of the enemies of the (^lovernraent, then the 
absence of the majority does not destroy and make null and void the rights 
of the minority. I ask the chairman of the Committee of Elections whether 
that is not good logic and pretty good law and pretty good common sense; 
and whether it ought not, to some extent at least, to control the action of 
this House. 

It has been said by the honorable gentleman from jMassachusetts that our 
admission will " establish a precedent to bind you how and by what method 
a title to I'epresentation upon this floor shall be established from all the other 
districts in the rebellious States." With all deference to the experience and 
matured wisdom of the gentleman, it will do no such thing. I must crave 
your indulgence, Mr. Speaker, in devoting some little time to the presenta- 
tion of the peculiar position of Virginia, and the different ground she oc- 
cupies from any other of the States which entered into the confederacy. 

I approach the subject with feelings such as one might experience who 
stands looking into a newly dug grave, in which has been placed the loved, 
and the lost, and hears the clods strike the cotBn-lid with their dull, heavy 
sound. April 17, 1861, the Virginia convention passed an ordinance of se- 
cession. That day dawned upon no State with fairer prospects. True, her 
advancement had not been so rapid as that of some of the mauufacturing^ 
and commercial States. She was to a great extent agricultural. In the pre- 
ceding decade her white population had increased one hundi-ed and fifty - 
fchree thousand. She had two hundred and ten miles of canals, and in the 
same period had added thirteen hundred miles to her railroads. Her slaves 
were bringing higher prices than ever before. The influence she had wielded 
from the earliest history of the Government had not waned. The prestige 
she had acquired through a Lee, a Patrick Henry, a Madison, a Jefferson, 
and a Washington, was still openrtive. In all the slave, and niany of the 
free States, she was the " Old Dominion " still. Her agricultural, manufac- 
turing, and mineral capabilities were unsurpassed ; and if, in the American 
sense of the tern), they were slowly, they were still surely being developed. 
Modest as is my colleague, I must here say no one had more to do with that 



13 

development than did he. From lier extreme eastern bounds that were 
lipped by the ocean's waves, to her furthest western peaks that kindled into 
blushes under the amorous glances of the setting sun, she was full of mate- 
rial prosperity, full of glorious promise. IMoses, when from the Mount of 
Nebo, the top of Pisgah, the Lord showed him all the laud of Judah unto 
the utalost sea, and the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the 
city of pilm trees unt) Z jar, saw no fairer sight. When one contrasts her 
Condi lion then, with what it is now, sadness is succeeded by indignation. 
Desolation is running riot in her borders. Gaunt famine stares her in the 
face. [ler sons have been more than decimated by hissing shot and bicker- 
ing steel. Her soil has been wet with tears, drenched with blood, made 
billowy with graves. A miserere in one wide wail of woe has gone up from 
agonized hearts, such as rarely ever reverberated through the blue empyrean. 
Those who have been instrumental in producing this condition of things, 
in changing the garden of the Lord into an aceUlama, a field of blood, will 
have a fearful account to settle. In this world their names 

" Will have a taint of infamy, 
Which, like Iscariot's, through all time shall last. 
Reeking and fresh forever." 

In that world wliir.h is to come, the language of Isaiah may well be ap- 
plied to each of them : " Hsll from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee 
at thy coming." 

But, as I have said, the ordinance passed by a considerable majority. 
The minority was in the main composed of the members from that part of 
the State now known as West Virginia, although I am happy in saying 
that the member from the stronghold of my colleague, the county of Acco- 
mac, that incorruptible man and sterling patriot, William H. B. Custis, and 
the members from Norfolk county and Portsmouth, (where I received a 
majority of my votes,) were true to the Union. 

What was done in that portfon of the State that remained unseduced ? 
Did its citizens blench ? Did they quail ? Did they " crook the pregnant 
hinges of the knee that tlirift may ibilow fawning?" No, Mr. Speaker, 
no. They knew whence their blessings had flowed. They knew that 
the Union to them and to, the country at large had been, not a Mount 
Ebal of curses, but a Mount Gerizim of blessings ; that it had been as 
ennobling in its influences as " orient suns, which shine on barren sands till 
they breed jewels." They remained firm, true to the memories of the 
mighty dead, true to themselves, true to their posterity, true to their coun- 
try, true to their God. 

Three days after the passage of the ordinance, John Letclier telegraphed 
the mayor of Wheeling. I read the telegram of Letcher, and the answer: 



• 14 

PiCHMTDND, April 20, 1861. 
To Andrew Swerney, 3Iayor of Wheeling: 

Tiike possession of the custom-house, post office, all public buildings and public doc- 
laments in the name of Virginia. Virginia has seceded. 

JOHx\ LETCHER, Governor. 



Wheeling. Apnil 21, 1861. 
To John Letcher, Governor of Virginia: 

I hav^e taken possession of the custom-house, post office, and all public buildings, 
and public documents in the name of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, 
whose property they are. 

ANDREW .SWEENEY, 

Mayor of Wheeling. 

This same spirit pervaded all classes in that northwestern section of the 
State. Ten days before the question of the acceptance or rejection of the 
ordinance was to be voted on, the loth day of May, 1861, a mass con- 
vention met at Wheeling. From the irregular manner in which this con- 
vention was called, and its unwieldly size, it was not calculated for the 
dispatch of business. Its action, however, resulted in the call of another 
convention, which met at Wheeling, June 11, 1861. I ask the Clerk to 
read the declaration addressed by that body to the people of Virginia. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

A Declaration of the people of Virginia represented in Convention at Wheeling, Thursday, 

June 13, 1861. 

The true purpose of all government is to promote the welfare and provide for the 
protection and security ofthe governed ; and when any form of government proves in- 
adequate for, or subversive of. this purpose it is the right, it is the duty of the latter to 
alter or abolish it. The Bill of Rights of Virginia, framed in 1776, reffirmed in 18.30, 
and again in 1851, expressly reserves this right to a majority of her people. The act 
of the General Assembly calling the convention which assembled in Richmond in 
February last, without the previously expressed consent of such majority, was tliere- 
fore a usurpation ; and the convention thus called has not only abused the powers nom- 
inally intrusted to it, but with the connivance and active aid of the executive has 
usurped and exercised other powers, to the manifest injury of the people, which, if 
permitted, will inevitably subject tliem to a military despotism. 

The convention, by its pretended ordinances, has required the people of Virginia to 
separate from, and wage war against the Government of the United States, and against 
the citizens of neighboring States, with whom they have heretofore maintained friendly, 
social and business relations. 

It has attempted to subvert the Union founded by Washington and his co-patriots, 
in the purer days ofthe Republic, which has conferred unexampled prosperity upon 
every class of citizens and upon every section of the country. 

It has attempted to transfer the allegiance of the people to an illegal confederacy of 
rebellious States, and required their submission to its pretended edict- and decrees. 

It has attempted to place the whole military force and military operations of the 
Commonwealth under the control and direction of such confederacy, for offensive as 
well a,s defensive purposes. 



15 

It has, in conjunction with the State executive, instituted, wherever their nsurped; 
power extends, a reign of terror intended to suppress the free expression of the will of 
the people, milking elections a mockery and a fraud. 

The same combination, even before the passage of the pretended ordinance of seces- 
sion, instituted war bj- the seizure and appropriation of the property of the F' d.eral< 
Government, and by organizing and mobilizing armies, with the avowed purpose of 
capturing or destroying the capital of the Union. 

They have attempted to bring the allegiance of the people to the United States into 
direct conflict with their subordinate allegiance to the State, thereby making obedience 
tj their pretended ordinances treason against the former. 

We, therefore, the delegates here assembled in convention to devise such measures 
and take such action as the safety and welfare of the loyal citizens of Virginia may 
demand, having maturely considered ths premises, and viewing with great concern the 
deplorable condition to which tliis once happy commonwealth must be reduced unless 
some regular adequate remedy is speedily adopted ; and appealiug to tlie Sui)reme 
Ruler of the universe for the rectitude of our intentions, do hereby, iii the name and 
on the behalf of the good people of Virginia, solemnly declare that the preservation of 
their dearest rights and liberties, and their security in person and property, impera- 
tively demand the reorganization of the government of the Commonweath, and that 
al' acts of said convention and executive tending to separate this Ooraniouwealtli from 
the United States, or to levy and carry on war against them, are without authority 
and void; and that the otfices of all who adhere to the said convention and executive, 
whether legislative, executive, or judicial, are vacated. 

Mr. CHANDLER. Thirty-four counties, containing- about one-fourth 
of the whole white population of the State, were represented in that con- 
vention. It was necessary, in the opinion of the convention, that the 
State should be reorganized, and the following ordinance was adopted. 

An Ordinance for the reorganization of the Stale Government, passed June 19. 1861. 

The people of the State of Virginia, by their delegates assembled in convention at 
Wheeling, do ordain as follows: 

1. A Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General for the State of Vir- 
ginia, shall be appointed by this convention to discharge the duties and exercise the 
powers which pertain to their respective offices by the existing laws of the State, and 
to continue in office for six months, or until their successors be elected and qualified; 
and the General Assembly Is n quired to provide by law for an election of Governor 
or Lieutenant Governor by the people as soon as in their judgment such election can 
be properly held. 

2. A council, to consist of five members, shall be appointed by this convention, to 
consult with and advise the Governor res[)ecting such matters pertaining to his offi- 
cial duties as he shall submit for consideration, and to aid in the execution of his 
official orders. Their term of office shall expire at the same time as that of the 
Governor. 

.3. The delegates elected to the General Assembly on the 23d day of May last, and 
the Senators entitled under existing laws to seats n the next General Assembly, to- 
gether with such deh-gates and Senators as may be 1uly elected under the ordinances 
of this convention, or existing laws, to fill vacancies, who shall qualify themselves 
hj takiag the oatb or affirmation hereioafter set forth, shall coBstitute the Legigla- 



16 

ture of the State, to discharge the duties and exercise the powers pertaining to the 
General Assembly. They shall hold their offices from the passage of this ordinance 
until the end of the terras for which they were respectively elected. They shall as- 
semble in the city of Wheeling on the first day of July next, and proceed to organize 
themselves as prescribed by existing laws in their respective brandies. A majority 
in each branch of the members qualified as i.iforesaid shall constitute a quorum to do 
business. A majority of the members of each branch thus qiuilified, voting affirma- 
tively, shall be competent to pass any act si]ecified in the twenty-seventh section of 
the fourth article of the constitution of the State. 

4. The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, members of the Legisla- 
ture, and all officers now in the service of the State, or of any county, city, or town 
hereof, or hereafter to be elected or app tinted for such service, including the judges 
and clerks of the several courts, sheriffs, commissioners of the revenue, justices of 
the peace, offi^;ers of the city and municipal corporations, and officers of militia, and 
officers and privates of volunteer companies of the State, not mustered into the ser- 
vice of the United ^tates, shall each take the following oath or affirmation before 
proceeding in the discharge of their several duties: "I solemnly swear (or affirm) 
that I will support the Constitution of the United Stales and the laws made in pur- 
suance thereof as the supreme law of the laud, anything in the constitution and laws 
of the State of Virginia or in the ordinances of the convention which assembled at 
Piichmond on the 13ih of February, 1861. to the contrary notwithstanding; and t''Mt 
I will uphold and defend the govcrnmei;t of Virginia as vindicated and restored by 
the convention which assembled at Wheern:g on the 11th day of June, 1861." 

5. If any elective officer, who is rt'quired by the preceding secti'in to take such oath 
or affirmation, fail or refuse so to do, 't shall be the duty of the Governor, upon satis- 
factory evidence of the fact, to issue his writ declaring the ofKce to be vacant, and 
providing for a special election to fill such vacancy, at some convenient and early day 
to be designated in said writ, of wliicli due publication shall be made, for the infor- 
mation of the persons entitled to vote at such election, and sucli writ may be directed 
at the discretion of the Governor, to the sheriff or sheriffs of the proper county or 
counties, or to a special commissioner or commissioners, to be named by the Gover- 
nor, for the purpose. If the officer who fails or refuses to take such oath or affirma- 
tion be appointed by the Governor, he shall fill the vacancy vvitiiout writ ; but if 
such officer be appointed otherwise than by the Gov. rnor or by election, the writ 
shall be issued by th' Governor, directed to the appointing power, requiring it to fill 

the vacancy. 

ARTlllR 1. LOllFMA'S, Fre.sidevt. 

G. L. UitA.NMKii, Secretary. 

It will be observed that the coiiveiition exercised no power save whst 
was imperiously demanded by the exigencies of the times. They formed 
no new government, but retained the old. 'J'liey provided for llie assem- 
bling of the Legislature at Wlieeling on the first day of July, 1861. The 
members of both General Assembly and Senate, comprising that Legisla- 
ture, with the exception of a few vacancies, had been elected duly and 
regularly before the State seceded. 

In the prosecution of their undertaking to wrest the State from con- 
spirators and traitors, the battle-bugle of the couvenlioa blew no uncer- 



If 

tain sound. They did not ask to have the line between treason and loy^ 
ally clearly, distinctly, and definitely laid down in order that ihey might 
see how near they could dress up to the former, without running tlie risk 
of hemp. They were at heart for the Union, and made no nice distinc= 
tions against it. " Thorough " was their motto. The following ordi- 
nances show this : 

An Ordinance to authorize the apprehending of suspicious persons in time of zvar, passed 

June 19, 18G1. 

The people of Virginia, by their deleyr.ites assembled in convention at Wheeling, do 
ordHin that ihe sixth and seventh sections of the seventeenth chapter of the Code 
of Virginia be amended and re-enacted to r^ad as follows : 

1. The Governor may cause to be apprehended and secured, or may compel to de- 
part from the State, all suspicious subjects or citizens of any foreign State or Power 
at war with the United States. 

2. And, whereas, the convention of Richmond have declared the union between 
the State of Virginia and the other States, under the Constitution of the United States, 
to be dissolved, and have attempted to transfer the allegiance of the people of this 
State to an illegal confederacy of rebellious States, called the confederate States of 
America; chiming that the State of Virginia and the said confederate States are 
rightfully, iind in fact, foreign States or Powers in reference to the United States : now 
therefore, all persons in this Commonwealth adhering to and supporting the said con- 
vention at Richmond, or the said confederate Stales, or professing to owe allegiance 
or obedience to the same, shall be deemed (for the purposes of this ordinance only) 
subjects or citizens of a foreiun State or Power at war with the United States. 

3. The Governor may send for the person and papers of any such person withia 
this State in order to obtain information to enable him to act in such cases. 

4. Any warrant or order of the Governor under this ordinance may be directed 
to any sherif!'or other officer, civil or military, and shall be executed according to the 
terms thereof by such officer, who shall have all the powers necessary for the purpose, 
either in or out of his county or corporation. 

5. If the Governor shall have just cause to believe that any persons in this State 
claiming to be subjects or citizens of the said confed.-rate States, or adhering to and 
supjioriing the said convention of the said confederate States, or professing to owe 
allegiance or oi'edience to the same, are about to assemble together, or have assem- 
bled tog( ther, for llie jiurpose of driliing or receiving military instruction, or to or- 
ganize them.<tlves as a military force, or to atiempt any military operation, or do any 
act whith may endanger the safety or welfare of the good people of this Common- 
wealth, or any porlb.n of the same, he may cause such assemblage to be prevented or 
dispersed, and the persons who may be about to assemble, or have assembled as afore- 
said, to be apprehended and secured, or may compel them to depart from this State; 
and for ihs [uirpose he may issue his warrant or order, directed to any sheriff or other 
officer, civil or military, which warrant or order shall be executed as aforesaid. And 
any assembbige of two or more persons for any purpose inimical to the Government 
of the United Slates, or of this State as reorganized by this convention, shall be 
deemed an unlawful assembly, and the persons so offending may be proceeded against 
and punished as provided in chapter 195 of the Code of Virginia. 

6. If any sheriff or other person shall transmit or pay any money, ojr any cbtck, 



18 

draft, bill, order, note, or certificate, for the payment of money, to any officer or other 
person at Riclimond or elsewhere, for the use of the said conftdenite States, or of the 
illegal State government at Richmond, now waging war against the United States, or 
shall furnisli any money, arms, military equipments, or munitions of war, or aid, or 
other support to the said confederate States, or State go^'erument, or to any military 
force under the control or direction of the same, or to any person or persons about to 
join any such military force, the Governor may cause to be apprehended and secured^ 
or may cause to depart from this State, the sheriff or other person guilty of such of- 
fense, and for this pur|)OSe may issue his warrant or order and cause the same to be 
executed as hereinbefore provided. 

7. The powers vested in the Governor by this ordinance shall be exercised only 
upon satisfactory evidence and with thes-oncurrence of a mnjority of his council. 

8. This ordinance shall take effect from its passage, and may be altered or repealed 
by the General Assembly. ARTHUR 1. BOREMaN, PmzrfCTi;. 

G. L. Ckakmee, Secretary. 



An Ordinance declaring null and void the proceedings of the Richmond Convention of 1861, 

passed August, 1861. 

The people of Virginia, by their delegates assembled in convention at Wheeling, do 
ordain as follows : 

1. All ordinances, acts, orders, resolutions, and other proceedings of the conven- 
tion which assembled at Richmond on the 13th day of February last, being without 
the authority of the people of Virginia constitutionally given, and in derogation of 
their rights, are hereby declared illegal, inoperative, null, void, and without force or 
effect. ARTHUR I. BOREMAN, President. 

G. L. Granmer, Secretary. 

Thus Virginia was kept on the constitutional track. In those mountain- 
ous regions, the Thermopylae passes where freedom's hiost holy altars have 
ever been raised, and where her fires have burned brighest, treason found 
no resting-place. The motto on the great seal of West Virginia was as true 
as to her in those dark days of 1861 as it is true historically — " Montani 
semper liberi.'" 

What was the theory on which this action of the Wheeling convention of 
June, 1861, was based? Why, that traitors, even if in a majority, could not 
take the State out of the Union; that the majority in a State can only make 
their political action effective under the Constitution, and that such action, 
if outside of and in derogation of the Constitution, is of no legal or binding 
effect, but is null and void. 

What course was the Union minority to take ? 'I'hey had to submit to 
the confederacy, remain in a state of confusion and anarchy, with all civil 
and municipal laws suspended, with martial or military law administered by 
shoulder-strapped gentlemen — some of whom " magnify their office " in a 
way that would have put the great apostle to the Gentiles to the blush — or 
take the course they did. Who can doubt they did right ? Who will say 
their course was abnormal, UQConstltutlonal ? 



19 

Cin territory acquired by purchase from forei,<2;n nations, or won from them 
at tlie sword's point, be erected into new States, and four hundred thousand 
of the loyal citizens of one of the " Old Thirteen" be denationalized because 
six lumdi-ed thousand citizens of the same State see fit to make traitoi'S of 
themselves ? 

The restored Si ate, as I have said already, at the outset was composed of 
thirty-four counties and nearly a fourth part of the white population of the 
State. County after county was added until more than sixty out of the one 
hundred and forty-eight counties of which the State was composed were 
rallied under the Stars and Stripes, and more than a third part of the white 
population. The loyal counties embraced more than a third part of the area 
of the whole State. 

Mr. Si,ieaker, test it as you may, 1 believe in the legality of the action of 
that convention. Instead of their doings being Red Republican and disor- 
ganizing, I believe them to have been conservative and reactionary. Instead. 
of shiking the foundations of the temple of civil rights and constitutional law 
from donjon-keep to turret wall, I believe it was sinking those foundations 
dj3eper, making them broader and more massive, adding buttress and coigne 
of vantage. 

If expediency is to be taken into consideration when passing upon a great 
question like this, all doubt is removed, [f disloy.ilfcy had existed in the 
northwestern, as in the other portions of the State, the consequences would 
have been sad indeed. 

My friend from West Virginia (31r. Blair) asks me, " What would have 
been the effect upon Ohio and Pennsylvania under such a state of things?" 
In order to understand how disastrous the effect would have been, let us see 
what hostile force would have been at their doors. How many members on 
tills floor know the number of troops furnished by this State of Virginia, 
that had been •• plucked as a brand from the burning," to the cause of the 
Union ? Why, sir, only twenty-five thousand — only an army twice as lai'ge 
as th it with which General Scott m:u-chel from Vera Cruz to Mexico! x\ 
result of some importance, it strikes me, Mr. Speaker, to have kept that body 
of men out of the Secession ranks ! I will refer my friend to the members 
fVom the two great States to which he called my attention. They can answer 
the question much more fully than is in my power. 

I\lr. BLAER, of West Virginia. If my friend will allow me just a word 
i desire to make a statement in connection with the remark he is now mak- 
ing. So far as the new State of West Virginia is concerned, she has not 
only filled every call made by the President of the United States for troops 
to put down this rebellion, but she has now a surplus of about sixteen hun- 
dred men ready to respond to any future call the President may make. 

Mr. CHANDLER. Yes sir; but lest a wrong impression should obtain, 



the gentleman will permit me to say Ihat the State of Virginia furnished the 
twenty-five thousand troops of wliich I speak liefoie she was divided, not the 
new State of West Virginia. The legislature vhch asscnjlled at Whceliiiir 
in 1861--62 was not the legislature of West Virginia. West Virginia was 
not a State until near the close of last year, 1 think in December. I speak 
of Virginia, of the " Old Dominion." 

But suppose there were doubts as to the political status of Virginia. What 
right has this House to deny that she is one of the States of this Union, in 
full fellowship and standing ? Are you not estopped from any such denial ? 
Both branches of the legislative department hiive committed themselves on 
this question. In 1861 the Senate admitted Carlile and Willey as Senators, 
and the House Blair, Brown and Whaley as Eepresentatives, from the State 
of Virginia. The first few wefks of this session the State was fully repre- 
sented in the Senate, and would have continued thus represented but for the 
untimely end of the gallant and lamented Bovvden, Yoa also acknov/ledged 
the State in 1863 by the admission of my colleague, (Mr. Skgar ) The 
members here this day from West Virginia are only here upon this hypoth- 
esis. The Treasury Department has acknowledged it by the payment of 
$40,000 surplus revenue which for years had been standing on the books to 
the credit of Virginia. War, Navy, Interior, and Post Ofiice Departments 
have over and over made such recognition. 

The Executive Department, the President, has done the same. In the 
proclamation accompanying his message of December last he does not name 
Virginia as among the rebellious States, which might come back under his 
ten per cent. rule. Speaking as he does in that pruclamation of his desire 
not to interfere with any Government that had already been organized shows 
conclusively, if other evidence were wanting, his opinion on this question. 

Respect for and obedience to the decisions of the Supreme Court of 
the United States have undergone many mutations in this good land of 
ours since my day, to say nothing of its earlier history. Let us see 
whether the law, as laid down by that tribunal, in decisions given by Mar- 
shall and a Taney, fortifies ray position. And, Mr. Speaker, I hope, inas- 
much as what old Fuller quaintly calls the images of God cut in ebony 
were not concerned, or interested, in the cases to which I shall refer, that 
the law laid down in them may he considered as entitled to some weight. 

The first case to which I will call the attention of the House is that of The 
United States vs. Palmer, 3 Wheaton, 6L0. It came up from the United 
States circuit court for Massachusetts on a division of opinion between 
the circuit and district judges. 

One of the questions taken up to the Supreme Court was this: 

" 6. Whftlier an net which would be deemcfl a robbery o;i the high seas, if done 
without a lawful commission, is protected from being considered as a robbery on the 



21 

hitrli spas when the snme act is done uiuler a comrnispion or the color of a commig- 
sioii frnm anv foreiurii colony, di.-lrict, or pt'ople, whic-b have revolted from their na- 
tive allfgiiincc, Hud liiive dei hired iht-nisilves iniit'iiendent and sovcreig-n, and have 
assfumed to exeicise the powers and authorities of an indepenlent and soverei 'n 
governmi'nt, i)nt have never been a-.knowledgi^d or recognized as an independent or 
sovereif/n government or nation bj the United States, or by any other foreign State, 
prince, or sovereignty ?" 

Chief Jvistice Marshall says: 

"Those questions wliich respect the rights of a part of a foreign empire which as- 
serts ;ind is contending fnr its independence, and the condnrt whicii mnst be observed 
by the conrls of the U.iion toward the subjects of such section of an empire who 
na.iy be "^'ronght before tlie tribunals of this country, are equally delicate and difficult. 

" As it is understood that ihe construction which has been given to the act of Con- 
gress will render a particular answer to them unnecessary, the court will only ob- 
serve that such questions are generally rather political than legal in their character. 
Th»y belong more properly to those who can declare what the law shall be; who 
can place the nation in such a po-ition with respect to foreign Powers as to their own 
judgment shall appear wise; to whom are intrusted ali its foreign relations ; than to 
that tribunal whose power as well as duty is confine'! to the application of the rule 
which the Legislature may prescribe for it. In such contests a nation may engage 
itself with the one party or the other; may observe absolute neulrality ; may recog- 
nize the new State ansolutely, or ma"- make a limited recognition of it. The pro- 
ceedings in courts must depend so entirely on the course of the Government that it 
is difficult to trive a precise answer to questions which do not refer to a particular 
nution. It may be said generally, that if the Government remains neutral and recog- 
nizes the existence of a civil war, its courts cannot consider as criminal those acts of 
hostility which war authorizes, and which the new government may direct against its 
enerny. To decide otherwise would be to determine that the war prosecuted by one 
of the parties was unlawful, and would be to arraign the nation to which the court 
belongs against that party. This would transcend the limits prescribed to the judi- 
cial department." 

The second case, or rather cases, to wliich I wish to call attention are 
those of Luther vs. Borden, 7 Howard, 42. 

Chief Justice Taney, in delivering the opinion of the court, lays down, 
in substance, the same principle as to intestine difRcitltips in one of the 
States of this Union, tliat Chief Justice Marshall had laid down as to like 
difficulties occurring, in a foreign nation, in the case of Palmer. 

If the State represented at Wheeling, in 1861, 1862, and 1863, was Vir- 
ginia, then the State represented now, at Alexandria, is the State of Vir- 
ginia. Last year the State was divided, and West Virginia set off. 
Legally speaking, if there was enough of the old territory remaining to 
set a flagstaff on, that part thus remaining w^ould be the State of Virginia. 
In point of fact, the area thus left, and now openly, and decidedly Union, 
is larger than Delaware — twice as large as Rhode Island. 

Maine, in 1821, was set off from Massachusetts. Suppose the terri- 



22 

tory which formsd the new State had emhraced all of Massachusetts save 
i?i)ston, does any one deny that Boston would have constituted the State 
of ^Massachusetts ; would have been entitled to two United States Sena- 
tors, and just so many Representatives as her population, under the ap- 
portionment, would have given her? 

What, then, becomes of the proposition of the chairman of the Com- 
mitter of Elections, that, if we are admitted to our seals, a precedent will 
be established which will govern every district in every rebellious State? 
What confederate State presents a case like this of Virginia? Is there 
one ? 

I had intended to show that the principle involved in the territorial bill 
of the gentleman from Maryland, which has lately passed this House, 
would not be afTected in its operation as to other States by our admission, 
but both my voice and the clock warn me to be brief. 

'Neither would our admission be inconsistent with the decision of this 
House in the case of Kitchen. He was ruled out on account of the wander- 
ing character of the county of Berkley, in which he received nearly all his 
votes. It was not exactly certain whether it was in Virginia or West Vir- 
ginia. 

Whatever maybe the resultof the voting in our cases,! shall be satisfied it 
will be arrived at as the dictate of calm deliberation and mature judgment. 

As th'S, Mr. Speaker, is the first time I have ever been before any legis- 
lative body, even as a claimant for a seat, it is possible, nay, more than prob- 
able, that I may have violated some parliamentary rule. If I have been so 
unfortunate, I can only say it has not been intentional, and I have been 
punished in a most effectual way by the more than kindness with which the 
House has treated me. 

Let me also say that I deem it an honor to have been permitted to stand 
here this day I to have had the privilege of addressing the Representatives of 
this mighty nation in the building which has been honored by the eloquent 
presence and utterances of the great men whose names stand so high on the 
rolls "in that temple where tlie dead are honored by the nations." 

Here I have had the good Ibrtune to hear him who now sleeps at Marsh- 
field, with the mighty ocean sounding his requiem; the great commoner, 
who never vailed his crest to mortal foe, and who now rests well in that State 
which has again been made a " dark and bloody ground," by those whom, 
as her children, she had cherished in her bosom ; of that later statesman, 
who, however men may differ as to his early career, had his life sunlit at its 
close by the truest patriotism, and who fell like the tree broken by the weight 
of its own golden fruitage. 

I trust I shall not be accused of presumption, when in their names, in the 
name of any and every man who has spoken for our nationality, for the great 



23 

cause of human progress and the true interests of humanity, T would pray 
you to rise to the height of this occasion in defence of the life of our coun- 
try. I d > not, I cannot, I will not beli<^ve that there is any real difference 
between parties here as to the consummation desired. '' Pulse beats to pulse, 
and heart to heart respunsive." 

Sooner or later, this rebellion will be crushed. " The mills of God if 
they grind slowly grind surely." 

Whether the dawn is now ready to sprinkle with rosy light hill-top and 
valley, or whether the watches of a moonless and starless night are still to be 
endured, the dawn will come, ushering in a day glorious in its final conse- 
quences as that on which the " morning stars sang together, and the sons of 
God shouted for joy." I see it not alone in the thousands whose sounding 
tread is heard in our streets, and who are pressing to the front. The whole 
atmosphere is full of encouragement — laden with promise. I see it in the 
more than Howard efforts ol' our Sanitary Commission — in the dispensation 
in charities of sums vaster than the dowers of queens. I see it in the sacri- 
fices made at every hearthstone in the land, in the calm agony of the father, 
the tearful smiles of the mother. It would need no Peter the Hermit to 
create an enthusiasm in this loyal land to which any that has as yet stirred 
the popular heart would be but as the ripples of an inland lake to the hiss- 
ing, seething, broad-backed waves of the Atlantic, lashed into fury by the 
storm-winds of the equinox. 

Yes, sir, the Union will be restored. Like the mangled limbs of Osiris, 
bone will be knit to bone, joint to joint, sinew to sinew, and rounded and 
swelling in its fair proportions it will stand forth a glorious embodiment of 
beauty and strength. It will move with a freer and a firmer tread on the great 
pathway of nations, and woe to him, be he king or kaiser, who dares impede 
its course, for 

"The Don^Ias and the Hotspur both together 
Are confideut agiiiust the world in arms." 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




012 608 162 5 



